176 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[November, 



Poultry Notes. 



Fowls eeiaora tire of milk. They may eat too 

 much grain or meat for health, but milk in any form 

 is more palatable and healthy. 



Probault fiO per cent, of the chickens hatched 

 die before they are two months old, or are destroyed 

 by animals or carried off by hawks. Chickens have 

 many enemies as well as friends and admirers. 



The Poultry World says: To utilize the feathers of 

 ducks, chickens and turkeys generally thrown aside 

 as refuse, trim the plume from the stump, inclose 

 them in a tight bag, rub the whole as if washing 

 clothes, and you will secure a perfectly uniform and 

 light down, excellent for quilting coverlets and not a 

 few other purposes. 



Turkey raising is carried on extensively in Tehama 

 county, Cal. One man, in addition to raising and 

 tending a large flock of sheep, raised nearly 700 

 turkeys last year. Large flocks of from 1,000 to 

 15,000 are frequently met with, tended by women 

 and children. 



The application of sulphur sprinkled upon fowls, 

 while roosting or otherwise, with a pepper box, will 

 destroy vermin. Coal oil applied to their roosts in 

 small quantities will also kill parasites. Two or 

 three drops of whale oil, dropped occasionally on the 

 back of a hen, or any other bird, will kill lice. 



Fowls fed on one kind of food will very soon get 

 cloyed and lose their appetite for it. 



Stick to your breeding though- the first, second 

 or third years bring you no prospective profits. In 

 any case the fowls will more than pay for them- 

 selves. 



A PKOPER selection of eggs for a setting is the 

 first point to be attended to in raising poultry. 



Where the grass plot is very limited, the fowls 

 should pnly have access to it for a short time each 

 day. 



Nests upon the ground floor or placed down quite 

 low are much handier and safer for the large 

 breeds. 



Badlt-fed and ill-cared for poultry will never do 

 well, no matter how well or how true they be bred. 

 One of the most requisite concomitants in produc- 

 ng eggs is a liberal supply of green food. 



Fowls half kept will soon become demoralized 

 and learn to steal to keep life within them. 



A little cayenne pepper occasionally dropped into 

 fresh water is a good tonic for young or old fowls. 



Too much wheat and buckwheat fed to fowls will 

 invariably cause looseness. 



Early feeding is the most desirable for fowls . 

 The morning meal is important and is also best rel- 

 ished. 



A SICKLY fowl should never be allowed to roost or 



run with the rest of the flock, because the disease 



may be contagious. 



Eggs from hens well fed on nutritious and whole- 



. some food will paatake in a great degree of the flavor 



and quality of the food. 



Sunflower or hempseed promotes a smooth 

 glossy plumage, and is a great desideratum in the 

 making up of exhibition fowls. 



Fowls having unlimited range may be kept in 

 flocks of considerable size and do well, but when re- 

 stricted or shut np, large flocks soon become diseas- 

 ed and cease to be productive. 



If tou commence with fowls in place of eggs for 

 a start, buy of reliable breeders, who breed none but 

 the best stock. 



Crushed bone or oyster shells is needed In every 

 hen house where the fowls cannot have access to 

 calcareous mater. 



Milk in any form is good for poultry. Mixing It 

 with ground feed is very nutritious and healthy for 

 chicks, and one of the best articles for fattening or 

 the production of eggs. 



Manx Eastern fruit-growers say they are vastly 

 beneflted by allowing their poultry among the fruit 

 trees and shrubbery, as they eat all the worms and 

 curcuHo within their reach— even the canker worms. 

 —Poultry Monthly. 



In testing eggs, the fresher the egg the smaller the 

 air chamber. This can be seen at the broad end of 

 the egg if it be held up against a strong light in a 

 dark room. Stale eggs have a mottled grayish look 

 about them. A new-laid egg will always give a 

 feeling of warmth if the tongue is pressed to the large 

 end. 



The thick scales which appear on the legs 

 and feet of fowls, more particularly those of the 

 large Asiatic breeds, are caused by a parasitic scab 

 mite which burrows in the skin. It is similar to the 

 sheep scab mite, and acts in a precisely similar man- 

 ner. It can be destroyed by putting the feet and 

 legs of the fowl in a can or jar of kerosene oil and 

 keeping them in the oil for a minute, until it pene- 

 trates under the scales and kills the insect. 



A WRITER in the Poultry World recommends 

 bones, baked in an oven until they are brown, as 

 a valuable contribution to the food of laying hens. 

 On the other hand the American Cultivator says : 

 "Some persons are in the habit of burning the bones 

 before feeding them to poultry. It is true tb at after 

 being burned they are much easier broken up, but 

 the raw bones contain a large amount of gelatine, 

 which is a most excellent food for making hens lay, 

 and gelatine also contains a large amount of nitrogen, 

 which is driven into the atmosphere by the heat. 

 When the hones are fed raw this nitrogen is retained, 

 and having done duty as food for the poultry and 

 constituting part of their systems, it is still capable 

 of again doing duty as a fertilizer, but once becoming 

 free nitrogen in the atmosphere, it is not so easy a 

 matter to combine it in such a manner that it shall be 

 rendered available as plant food. In pounding raw 

 bone it is not necessary to make it so fine as people 

 suppose, for a hen will swallow a much larger piece 

 than many would think' possible, and when at once 

 in her crop it will be digested and properly economized. 



Literary and Personal. 



The American Agriculturist for November 

 1st, contains more than its usual choice selection of 

 valuable practical articles. Among the leading 

 contributors are : Prof. C. E. Bessey— "Cut-worms ; 

 Remedies, etc. ;" Dr. M . Miles—' ' Rotation of Crops;' ' 

 Prof. S. A. Kuapp—" Barbed Wire for Fencing;" 

 Plof. C. V. Riley— "The Chinch Bug;" Col. M. C. 

 WeW— " Common Sense in the Poultry Yard;" Tim 

 Bunker-" Do Agricultural Fairs Pay?" L. B. Ar- 

 uold— " Flecks in Cream;" Prof. W. J. Beal— "Notes 

 on Indian Corn;" Hon. F. D. Coburn— "The Canine 

 Curse;" Prof. S. A. Forbes— " Birds and Canker 

 Worms;" Prof. J. M. McBryde— "Seeding of Wheat;" 

 Hon. X. A. Willard— " American Cheese and its Ex- 

 ports;" Prof. F. H. Storer— " Artiflcial Milk;" Mrs. 

 E. H. Lelaud— "Rearing and Training of Children." 

 Other illustrated articles cover a wide range of sub- 

 jects, including "Working Out the Road Tax;" Farm 

 and Garden Notes; Shropshire Sheep; Common 

 Crow; Salamander: Lump Fish ; Hints and Helps 

 for Farmers ; Stanchions ; Cow Stables ; Fruit Lad- 

 ders ; Double Gate ; Two Troublesome Weeds ; The 

 Bellflower, etc., etc. There is a full measure of 

 Household matter, and the Boys' and Girls' columns 

 are crowded with valuable juvenile reading. Terms 

 $1.50 a year, 16 cents a copy. Orange Judd Co., 

 Publisliers, New York. The Lancaster- Fakmeb 

 and American Agriculturist, will be furnished for 

 1883 at $2.00. 



The Farm and Workshop, a "journal for the 

 Farms, Firesides, and Workshops of the United 

 States." Published by the Association at Peoria, 

 Illinois, at $1 a year, monthly. This is a royal 4-to 

 of 16 pages, established in 1S75, and is a journal of 

 more than ordinary interest, containing as it does, 

 "diversified matter both of local and general interest, 

 and practical withal. (O yes, we will X.) 



North-western Farmer and Dairyman, de- 

 voted to improved methods in Agriculture and 

 Dairy-farming. Portland, Oregon, 1881. 16 pages 

 quarto, monthly, at 75 cents a year. No. 7, vol. 1, 

 for September, has reached our table, and although 



unpretentious, it is practical, Its selections well made, 

 and we like it ; it is worth more than larger jour- 

 nals. X. 



We have received a circular of the Spring Garden 

 Institute, corner of Broad and Spring Garden streets, 

 Philadelphia, a technical school in which boys re- 

 ceive class instruction in filing, turning, drilling, 

 forging, and other mechanical handiwork, accom- 

 panied by a graphic illustration of the " new quar- 

 ters of the mechanical handiwork department" of 

 said institute. This institute is under the supervi- 

 sion of a committee of respectable and practical 

 mechanics, members of some of the most solid and 

 intelligent firms, boards and business establishments 

 in Philadelphia. We like the tone of the institution 

 and bid it God-speed. " Give the boys an opportu- 

 nity of earning an honest living with their hands, and 

 do not drive them to getting it by their wits, and thus 

 become drones on society, "which is one of their adopt- 

 ed mottoes, has the " right ring" in it, and tbepre- 

 paratory instruction that boys receive in this estab- 

 lishment qualifies them for any merchant, mechanic 

 or other art they may in after times engage in. Tui- 

 tion $5 per quarter, (three months), including prac- 

 tice, lectures, and use of material and tools. Avery 

 desirable institute, and one that will crown the heads 

 of those who originated it with a halo of practical 

 glory. 



Resources of New Mexico, prepared under the 

 auspices of the Territorial Bureau of immigration, 

 containing also the premium lists for the Agricultu- 

 ral Fair, held at Albuquerque, on the 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 

 and Sth of October, 1881. A beautifully printed 

 pamphlet of 74 pages octavo, and is a creditable 

 illustration of the quality of "job printing" done in 

 Santa Fe and New Mexico. 



An introductory sketch of the history and revie\y 

 of the resources of the country by Hon. W. G. Ritch, 

 contains the ancient boundaries, political divisions, 

 chief towns and population, topography, altitudes, 

 and rivers, minerals and precious stones, agriculture, 

 horticulture and vine, pastoral ranges, forests a san- 

 itarium, tradition, coat of arms, Spanish explorations; 

 Coronsido's expedition of 1540 : Espijo's expeditions, 

 first settlement, public insurrection, restoration of 

 1694, first merchandise, Mexican republic, American 

 occupation, war of the rebellion, battles of the western 

 line, overland trade, railroad system, general sum- 

 mary; religion, education, societies, public improve- 

 ments, newspapers; besides the chronological annals 

 of New Mexico and contiguous territory from the year 

 1825, including every intervening year, down to July 

 1, 1881. Also a synopsis of its mining interests, its 

 future prospects, and opportunities for energetic men, 

 winding up with a military register, and a brief his- 

 tory .of the "ancient city" of >Sa)ita Fe, which being 

 interpreted, means "City of the holy faith." 



ZioN, the Sunny Mount, a neat little 8 page oc- 

 tavo, published monthly by Isaac M.See, M. D., 165 

 South Elliott place, Brooklyn, N. Y., at 35 cents per 

 annum. This is a religious publication of advanced 

 theological views, and endeavors to illustrate that 

 " all religion has relation to life, and the life of re- 

 ligion is to do good." 



The Matrimonial Review, devoted to love, 

 courtship and marriage. A 16 pagedemi octavo,pub- 

 lished by Weber & Buckwalter, Farmersville, Lan- 

 caster CO., Pa., at 50 cents a year (in advance.) Not 

 that there is no occasion for some sort of help to- 

 wards elevating the popular views on marriage, in 

 its legitimate relation to the sexes, but we fail to see 

 anything in this journal to "fill the bill" of what is 

 really required. Woman occupies a higher sphere 

 in the moral and social word than that of "help- 

 mate" merely, because of the proncness of that atti- 

 tude to degenerate into social and domestic slavery. 

 According to the oracles of Divine Truth, she was 

 created as a help, meet for man, and not a helpmate 

 —that is a suitable help— such a help as he needs 

 spiritually, morally, physically, socially, domesti- 

 cally and congenially. No system that roots about 

 among merely worldly rubbish, can be of much ben- 

 efit in the end to those who need it most. 



